Survey: most b-to-b execs feel tablets are important but less than half feel they have the resources to execute a tablet strategy 

February 28, 2012 -- A recent survey of 200 ABM members (including CEOs, presidents and those with higher-level digital titles) finds that while increased tablet usage is meaningful to 83 percent of respondents (7 percent say tablets aren’t important, 10 percent aren’t sure), just 43 percent say they have the understanding and the resources to charge ahead into tablets on their own.

Sixty-percent of respondents say their tablet strategy should be device-agnostic, with 42 percent saying the budget should be between $15,000 and $25,000 annually. Twenty-five percent of respondents say their budget will be more than $25,000 annually, while 8 percent say they would be interested in a one-time fee, even if it exceeds $25,000.

Of those ABM members offering tablet products this year, 53 percent say they will create new content exclusively for tablets, while 40 percent are re-using existing print content (more than 80 percent of respondents say PDFs of existing content aren’t sufficient). Another 22 percent are using tablets to support or enhance upcoming print content.

While many consumer-side media companies are willing to pony up for Apple’s 30 percent revenue share for iPad apps (while hedging their bets with more publisher-friendly Android revenue shares as well as HTML5 solutions), 63 percent of ABM respondents say it’s crucial for the publisher to have control over content, revenue shares and distribution, but aren’t sure how they can maintain control over all these aspects. Another 37 percent say having ownership over content, revenue shares and distribution is exactly how they plan to do it.